Talk:Twenty-Three Skidoo/@comment-24593235-20181013075719
Fantastic premiere! All-round, solid episode that's got the season off to a far better start than last year. I'll be the first to say that it took Dynasty a little while to figure itself out, but at this point I think it's pretty clear they've got a good understanding of these characters and how to stay true to them while telling fun, over-the-top stories. Myself along with anyone who's been following the show on social media already knew that Cristal didn't survive the finale (and gunshot wound, poor thing), but that sure didn't make it any less devastating to see Sam sitting there holding her ashes. I mean talk about a gut-punch. It was a very simple moment, but it really got me. Cristal was a character that really grew on me over time. I wasn't a big fan of her in the first few episodes. I was firmly Team Fallon in the early days of their feud, and only grew to like her, really, as Fallon grew to like her. As the show shifted away from their war against each other and we delved more into Cristal's backstory, allowing for the writers to better characterize her and allow for Nathalie Kelley to better play her (she's not a bad actress, but Elizabeth Gillies and Nicollette Sheridan far outshine her, in my opinion), I started to become sold on the character. By the finale she was one of my favorites, and I definitely consider her to be the MVP of that episode. She was at her absolute best, which made it even more tragic to see her die. I've kinda strayed away some, but the point I'm trying to make is that I'm really going to miss Cristal, and I also appreciate Sam and Blake being the ones to take the time to mourn her this episode. I get it, it's a soap opera and the plot's gotta keep moving. Part of me feared they'd skip over mourning Cristal all together and we'd have jumped six months into the future. This episode provided a lot of good character moments for Sam and Blake to really reflect on Cristal and the impact she made. I liked Blake more in this episode than I probably have the entire duration of the show, and while I didn't like the direction his relationship with Cristal went in, it was still nice to see Sam even acknowledge the show that they shared. As he pointed out, things weren't good in the end, but there was a time they did truly love each other. It's also worth pointing out how far the writers of the reboot have gone with Blake's character, who was known to be very homophobic in the original version of the series. To see him have these bonding moments with Sam just become all the more special, and it's a dynamic I would like to see further explored this season since it's not something we've gotten to see much of yet. Sam telling off the Cristal impostors and the extremely rude reporters was very much warranted. I thought Rafael did a good job in those scenes; Sam was angrier than we've ever seen him before, and I just wanted to give him a hug. Blake defending Sam by punching that reporter was just wonderful. Blake's speech at the party warranted a mixed response from me, but having re-watched the episode I've decided that I'm happy with it. He went off, and he a right to go off. Is he always the best guy? No. But his family keeps overlooking this horrible thing that's just happened to him. Fallon, Steven, and Alexis are all concerned with their own personal issues that they then proceed to drag Blake into despite never bothering to actually check up on him. Right now, I feel bad for the guy. I'm sure that in a couple episodes from now I probably won't anymore, but right now I do. And I got a kick out of him exposing Fallon and Steven the way that he did. Now let's talk about Steven and the whole pregnancy nonsense. I... don't know what to make of this. First of all, let me just say that I'm glad Steven's alive. We knew that James filmed for the premiere, but there was a long period of time were he wasn't posting any BTS content which led me to believe that maybe he had been demoted. I didn't really think it would happen, but in the back of my mind there was the possibility that Steven may appear as a hallucination and it would be an Ugly Betty 2x01 situation where Hilda hallucinated that Santos survived being shot, and for the whole episode we were led to believe he had survived (for those who watched Ugly Betty). But yeah, glad that's not what happened with Steven. Damn, that would've been too much on poor Sam. :( But anyways, the baby stuff. There's something about Melissa Daniels that I don't like. Her character is just... weird. Like that she's so underdeveloped that she barely constitutes as a character, just a vessel for this storyline. I don't know, I just really struggle to see any depth in her, and I find it so off-putting. But yeah, I don't see this pregnancy come to full term. A lot of people speculated that she made it up, but I just think either Steven will be proven to not be the father or she'll suffer a miscarriage (at the hands of Alexis, via horse and shotgun). Perhaps the miscarriage will leave Steven and Sam with the desire to still have a child, which could lead to many different storylines involving that. Also - I love Sam wanting to raise the child. I dreaded the thought of this creating marital problems so soon after they tied the knot, and the idea of Sam helping raise the child to fill the void left by Cristal (who took part in raising him) is lovely. If this baby somehow survives and is somehow Steven's and is a girl, Sam better fight for her to be named "Celia". Of course though, Melissa does draw some red flags, and the idea of Alexis and Sam working together next week excites the hell out of me. That's another duo I wanna see more of. Which I guess brings us to Alexis. God, I just love Alexis. Seriously, everything that woman does is just so wonderfully awful. Staying in the hospital two weeks past recovery, sending herself flowers, the interview where she drags Cristal, the wheelchair, shattering the jar with Cristal's ashes, trying to rob Blake's safe, and then having sex with Blake on piles of hundred dollar bills. How does it get any better than that?! There's a fair amount of people who don't like Alexis because she's a terrible person, but that's the whole point of her character! She's so terribly wonderful, and you can just tell Nicollette Sheridan is having such a fun time playing her. I have a feeling Alexis is gonna be the best part of the season for me (it was Fallon last season, more on that later), and I'm so excited to see what comes from that. Her interactions with Hank, while slightly frustrating, we also kinda hilarious given how stupid he is. Though it's a bit ridiculous that such a moron can be as big of a threat as he is. Also, Hank set the fire! Cool, I guess? I never bothered theorizing who it could be given how many people hate the Carringtons, but I'm fine that it's out of the way now. Of course only Alexis knows right now, but I'm content with that information being out there as a viewer. I'm quite excited for the emotional fallout when the rest of the Carringtons learn the truth about the fire though, Hank being the culprit as well as Claudia killing Cristal. But yeah, keep Alexis coming. Literally. (Is that too inappropriate in a wiki comments section?) Blake and Alexis hooking up is something I've wanted since 1x17. The chemistry is there. Unlike Cristal who, let's be honest, has always deserved far better than Blake, he and Alexis are simply made for each other. They're both bad people, and they've got the history and the chemistry to make for a very compelling couple. With Cristal Jennings out there, I have a feeling Blake and Alexis won't get their happily ever after together, but I hope the writers still take the opportunity to have some fun with them nonetheless. Now let's take the time to finally address Fallon. I love Fallon, I really do. She was my favorite character in the first season, and I'm a huge fan of Elizabeth Gillies. But let's talk about her current storyline. It's not that I have an issue with her story this episode alone so much as what this episode means for her going forward. The love triangle... it's gotta go, and it's gotta go soon. The writers are getting into some pretty dangerous territory with this Fallon/Michael/Liam stuff. Fallon's been portrayed as a strong individual since the pilot, but that's been the case for a lot of female leads in television shows, and then they get consumed by a love triangle and suddenly it all goes to hell. Full disclosure: I don't ship Fallon with either man, and I didn't ship her with Jeff before we knew they were cousins. I find Michael boring, and a part of me will always believe Liam is Adam. I love Fallon, but her love life has always been the least interesting thing about her character arc, and right now it's the most prominent. I wanna see her family dynamics and plays for power. I want Fallon to be happy, and as romantic as it was, I'm put off by her wanting to give up CA for Culhane. That company's been her ambition for years, and now she's throwing it aside for a man. The engagement scene was sweet, and I'm happy that Fallon's happy, but I'm nervous about what could come from this. There's nothing wrong with Fallon having a love interest, but I'm concerned that this love triangle is going to be more harmful to her story arc than helpful, if it's to be her main focus this season. The writers need to just have her pick one or neither of them and then move on to something else. Next week seems to be getting into her history with Kirby - I'm excited for that. Give us more of that, give us more her relationships with Steven or Alexis or Sam or Blake, give us something where she acknowledges Cristal and how much she secretly meant to her, give us more of Elizabeth Gillies singing because my god does she have a voice. Just. Drop. The Love Triangle. Hell, throw out Michael and Liam and pair her with Kirby. I'm down for that. Which is my way of transitioning to Kirby. I like her so far. We've not gotten much yet, but I'm intrigued and wanna see more. I saw someone say she looks like Bella Thorne, and now I can't get that out of my head. But yeah, looking forward to seeing her interact with more than just Anders. It looks like next week will give us the first catfight of Season 2 between her and Fallon, and I'm hyped for that. She's also gonna be interacting with Jeff, something else that could be interesting. I suppose they need to find some use for him and Monica (who I'm surprised wasn't upped to series regular). Oh, but very excited for their mother Dominique later in the season. Please get Vanessa Williams! Lastly, and most certainly least, there's Cristal Jennings. I'm sorry, but what? When Nat Kelley said she wasn't coming back for Season 2, I wasn't all that surprised. Based on some interviews and where her character went after Alexis' introduction, her days felt numbered. But then they announced this whole new!Cristal ordeal. I was taken aback, and was (still am) convinced that some sh*t must have gone down with Nat Kelley. Obviously they wanted her off the show, but still wanted to use the iconic character. Well based on how press releases and such described it, their explanation for this new Cristal made sense. The CW executives said this has been in the works since around mid-Season 1. I call bullsh*t, but okay, you could claim that if they were doing what they led on they were doing. Season 1 made clear that Cristal was actually Celia Machado, using the identity of a person named Cristal Flores. This left the opportunity to show the "real" Cristal, which would've made the most sense. It would've made more sense to do that with Nat still on the show so the two Cristals could meet, but it makes sense for what they were trying to work with. But apparently... that's not the case? They just blew through that concept in this episode and suddenly there's some woman out there named "Cristal Jennings" (yeah, I get the reference) who's jokingly told she should pretend to be "Cristal Flores"? That's... so pointless. Why not just make it the real Cristal Flores if we have to have a new Cristal?! Wouldn't that be more traditionally soapy?! This is just unnecessary and forced and only leads me to further believe something really bad happened with Nat Kelley that led to her being fired. This, added with the amount of disrespect her Cristal was met with this episode (the ashes, my god the ashes. I laughed my ass off because of how awful it was, but wow...) But yeah, mostly I'm just confused now? I really wanted to keep an open mind. It seemed they were at least trying with the "real Cristal Flores" idea, but this is just dumb. Congrats to anyone who bothered to read this all the way through. I know I was more critical towards the end, but they were small in the grand scheme of things. It was a fantastic first episode back, and I really enjoyed *almost* everything about it. If they keep it up, this should be a great season, and I'm very excited to see where all these different storylines go. I would like to start commenting my thoughts after each episode, so if others wanna join in then that could be a fun thing for us to do. I usually have a lot of thoughts and feel the need to put them all out there, so this could be a fun way to do it. But yeah, what did you all think about the episode? You excited for what's to come?